18-03-2019

EDITORIAL
MOnDAY,
MARch 18, 2019
4
new Zealand carnage exposes prejudices
Acting Editor & Publisher : Jobaer Alam
Telephone: +8802-9104683-84, Fax: 9127103
e-mail: editor@thebangladeshtoday.com
Monday, March 18, 2019
Paying tribute to Bangabandhu
on his 99th birthday
Soon after the completion of 100 greatest Britons poll
in 2002, the BBC organized a similar opinion poll to
find out who is the greatest Bengali personality in
Bengali nation's history of thousand years. In 2004,
BBC's Bengali Service conducted the opinion poll with the
title Greatest Bengali of all time started from February 11
that continued onto March 22. The poll was participated
by Bengalis around the world including from Bangladesh,
India (states of West Bengal, Trpura, Assam ) and
overseas Bengali communities.
A total of 140 nominations were from the poll. BBC
started to announce the top 20 names from 26 March
declaring one name each day starting from 20th position.
On the final day of 14 April 2004, which was also the
Pahela Baishakh (Bengali New Year day), BBC
announced Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father
of Bangladesh, as the Greatest Bengali of all time voted by
Bengalis worldwide.
Yesterday (Saturday), Bangladesh observed the birth
anniversary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
He would have been 99 years old on this day if he lived.
Tragically his life was cut short prematurely. On15
August, 1975 he was slain by most heartless killers in the
small hours along with nearly all members of his family.
It forms possibly the greatest tragedy epic in the modern
times of a man so great and honorable being put down by
a hail of bullets by some misguided ones of his own
people.
The killers probably calculated thought that his killing
would forever bury his legacy. But they were proved
resoundingly to be very wrong for the party which he led
triumphantly came back to power in 2009 and in the next
year tried his killers and hanged five of them. Six others
are absconding abroad from justice.
Why the name and fame of Banghabandhu endures so
popularly is because he was not merely an individual.
Through his unflinching dedication to his cause,
matchless patriotism and self sacrifice, he has lived
through the decades in people's memory as an iconic
personality. Thus, today, he is romanticised and
described as a whole splendid revolution himself, an
upsurge-the essence of epic poetry and history.
His greatness, the vision and promises thrown forth by
him, are the source of the inspiration of this Bengali
nation.
He was a very great friend of the teeming millions of
our people. To the nation he is the Father. In the view of
men and women in other places and other climes, he is
the founder of sovereign Bangladesh.
Journalist Cyril Dunn once said of him, "In the
thousands of years of history of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujib
is the only leader who has, in terms of blood, race,
language, culture and birth, been a full-blooded Bengali.
His physical stature was immense. His voice was redolent
of thunder. His charisma worked magic on people. The
courage and charm that flowed from him made him a
unique superman in these times." Newsweek magazine
called him the poet of politics.
Embracing Bangabandhu at the Algiers Non Aligned
Summit in 1973, Cuba's Fidel Castro noted, "I have not
seen the Himalayas. But I have seen Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman. In personality and in courage, this man is the
Himalayas. I have thus had the experience of witnessing
the Himalayas." Upon hearing the news of
Bangabandhu's assassination, former British Prime
Minister Harold Wilson wrote to a Bengali journalist,
"This is surely a supreme national tragedy for you. For me
it is a personal tragedy of immense dimensions."
The liberal democratic politics of Sher-e-Bangla A. K.
Fazlul Haque and Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy
contributed to the moulding of Mujib's character. He
was committed to work for the public interest and the
national interest with everything he possessed in in his
body and soul. He distinguished himself soon in his
political career as the strongest advocate of Bengali
nationalism. It was this particular passion that led to the
rise of his ideology based on Bengali nationalism and for
democracy leading to his brilliantly steering the course for
the achievement of independent Bangladesh
At the United Nations, he was the first man to speak of
his dreams, his people's aspiration, in Bangla. The
language was, in that swift stroke , recognized by the
global community. For the first time after Rabindranath
Tagore's Nobel achievement in 1913, Bangla was put on a
position of dignity.
The multifaceted life of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
cannot be put together in language or colour. The
reason is : Mujib was a larger than life titanic figure. It
is not possible to hold within the confines of this
column the picture or the extent of his greatness. He
was the supreme leader in the struggle for our national
independence . The greatest treasure of the Bengali
nation is preservation of his legacy. He has conquered
death. His memory should be an everlasting guide to
his countrymen.
It was because of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur
Rhman that his countrymen today live completely free
in the air of freedom and enjoy unfettered all the
opportunities for their self development and progress
and their collective advancement as a people and
nation. Bangbandhu's activities of a lifetime bestowed
these great gifts on his people and the country. Today,
Bangladesh is recognized as a rising power in the
family of nations. Various projections by world
renowned analysts have confidently projected that
Bangladesh is destined to be a great economic power
house only a decade from now and also a force for the
good and welfare of entire mankind. When this
happens, Bangladeshis will realize how much they owe
to Bangabandhu for setting them on this glorious path.
Friday's carnage not only killed 49
Muslim worshippers at two
mosques in Christchurch right in
the heart of predominantly non-Muslim
New Zealand. The attack came as a
powerful reminder of how terror can
just not be associated with any one
religion. The main attacker - an
Australian national - and his associates
appeared to be driven mainly by their
own perceived values of nationalism.
In the past two decades since 9/11,
Muslims around the world have borne
the brunt of being associated with
terrorism. Consequently, many have
faced denial of travel visas to western
countries, while others who chose to
migrate to a western country have faced
prejudice in a variety of places. But as
country after country chose to build
barriers against exposure to Islamic
influence, Friday's carnage has squarely
ripped apart such prejudices.
Ultimately, the bottom line
surrounding any or all of these
situations has just been one. Behaviour
ranging from objectionable to outright
offensive can simply not be associated
with any one religion. Indeed, the
history of Islam clearly outlines the
salvation that the Prophet Mohammad
(PBUH) brought to Arabia more than 14
centuries ago.
Ahead of Friday's carnage in New
Zealand came a promising sign of
progress in peace talks in Afghanistan.
The issue remains framed as a divide
between the US, a secular country, as
opposed to the Taliban in Afghanistan, a
predominantly hardline Islamic
There are coping strategies for
dealing with terrorism and the
feeling it is meant to induce,
namely terror. One is to tell yourself, it
won't happen to me. Following the
massacre of 49 people at prayer in two
mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand,
many non-Muslims might be saying to
themselves, if only in a guilty whisper, "I
am not Muslim, I'll be OK." Another
strategy is to tell yourself, it won't happen
here. That's hard, though, for if it can
happen in a country that has long seen
itself as a serene haven, distant from a
turbulent world, then it can surely
happen anywhere. And still others may
fall back on that perennial reassurance:
this was just one deranged individual.
The trouble is, that last solace is
becoming impossible to sustain. The
terrorists of the white supremacist right
are telling us as loudly and clearly as they
can that we are dealing here not with a
handful of sad loners, oddballs or
psychopaths, though they may be all of
those things, but a global, if diffuse,
movement with a core ideology - one that
draws strength and succour from
political leaders, including those at the
very highest level.\
The man suspected of the Christchurch
killings could not have been clearer. He
literally spelt out his meaning in words
and slogans daubed over the murder
weapon itself, to say nothing of his
supposed manifesto, published online.
Through the jumble of incoherent
ramblings, the motifs keep leaping out,
the nods to those he imagines to be his
comrades around the world and
throughout history. He is telling us that
movement. Yet a careful analysis will
show that the long-running dispute in
Afghanistan has been fundamentally
fuelled by power politics rather than
religion.
Almost two decades after the US
invaded Afghanistan when the Taliban
government was driven out,
Afghanistan remains far from a peaceful
victory. For the US, the Afghan war
remains the most expensive battle in
history with an expenditure so far of
more than $1 trillion (Dh3.67 trillion).
Ultimately, the Afghan venture has been
nothing short of a clear disaster for US
policymakers. Ultimately, a US
settlement with the Taliban will
ultimately see American troops vacate
the central Asian country in return for
the Taliban to gain a place in
Afghanistan's future ruling structure.
New approach required
Similarly, other conflict zones have
likewise demonstrated that disputes are
ultimately settled by the reality of power
rather than other considerations such as
ideologies or beliefs. In this background
following Friday's carnage in New
FARhAn BOKhARI
Zealand, the world needs to urgently
consider a new way of thinking for the
management of security and conflict
related issues across the world. As
commentator after commentator
pleaded on Friday, associating terrorism
with the community of the world's 1.3
billion Muslims is not just unfair. More
pertinently, it defies the all too visible
reality which is vital to assess the way
forward in global affairs.
At the very least, it is vital for the preeminent
global body, the United
Nations, to urgently consider reforms
including a greater say for Islamic
countries in the General Assembly and
Ultimately, the bottom line surrounding any or all of these
situations has just been one. Behaviour ranging from
objectionable to outright offensive can simply not be
associated with any one religion. Indeed, the history of Islam
clearly outlines the salvation that the Prophet Mohammad
(PBUh) brought to Arabia more than 14 centuries ago.
he is no faraway one-off, but one of many
in Europe and the US who have a
worldview - and mean to see it
implemented.
The title of his 74-page document is
The Great Replacement. That's the
doctrine long advanced by the pan-
European Generation Identity
movement, which holds that the white,
Christian population is under threat
from a deliberate effort to replace it
through Muslim immigration. It's the
same idea that echoed around the
pageant of neo-Nazis and Ku Klux
Klansmen through Charlottesville,
Virginia, in 2017 - the one praised by
Donald Trump as including "some very
fine people" - where marchers chanted
"White lives matter", and "Jews will not
replace us".
Those men carrying torches in the
Virginia summer do not believe that the
US is about to become a majority Jewish
country: rather they imagine a Jewish
plot to replace the white population with
a black, brown or Muslim one. Note how
the Christchurch suspect referred to
Muslim immigrants, many of them
the Security Council. Side by side,
Islamic countries also need to re-vitalise
the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
(OIC), their main global body to press
for concrete reforms geared towards
tackling prejudices against Muslims.
On the side, Islamic countries must
also intensify their economic ties to
increase internal trade and exchange of
ideas to collaborate increasingly on
education and scientific endeavours.
Such ideas however must not work
JOnAThAn FReeDLAnD
refugees from some of the world's most
appalling violence, as "invaders" - the
same word used to describe Muslims by
Robert Bowers, who shot dead 11 Jews at
prayer at the Tree of Life Synagogue in
Pittsburgh last October. Bowers seems to
have targeted that specific community
because it was deeply committed to
voluntary work resettling refugees, many
of them Muslims. To Bowers, that looked
like evidence of "the great replacement"
in action.
The Christchurch suspect also pays
homage to other killers of the far right,
including Darren Osborne, who attacked
London's Finsbury Park mosque in 2017,
killing a worshipper; Dylann Roof, who
gunned down nine African-Americans
churchgoers in Charleston; and,
inevitably, the Norwegian mass
murderer Anders Breivik.
There are two key points to make here.
First, we need to pursue, discuss and
think about these killers the same way we
do their violent Islamist counterparts,
who they resemble so closely. After 9/11,
we instantly understood every Islamist
attack as part of a global terrorist
towards isolating the global community
of Islamic countries from non-Islamic
ones. On the contrary, such deeper
engagement must work side by side with
deepening relations between Islamic
countries working as a bloc and other
countries of the world.
Friday's carnage in New Zealand was
not the first of its kind in recent memory
where a community or group of
Muslims were targeted violently. In the
heat of the moment, it would be natural
for many Muslims to feel outraged. But
as sanity returns as it must eventually, it
would be important for members of
Muslim communities worldwide to reengage
with non-Muslims with renewed
vigour. In seeking to either solidify
existing bridges of friendship or building
new ones, community members
including mosque leaders must
emphasise that violence by a few must
not colour the way Muslims view wider
communities across countries where
they have migrated. Ultimately, it will be
important to repeatedly emphasise the
message of peace as communicated by
the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) in
revealing the message of Islam. Today,
more than ever before, it is vital for
Muslims to return to that message and
use it as their singular point of
convergence.
Following Friday's deeply painful
occurrence in Christchurch it is essential
for Muslims to move forward with a
message of peace to emphasise yet again
the true spirit of Islam.
Source : Gulf News
It’s time we must confront the right’s hate preachers
Technology was supposed to solve
some of the world's biggest
problems. Connect everyone to the
Internet, it was once assumed, and
democracy would follow. Collect enough
data, and all of our questions would be
answered. Put everything online, and
algorithms would do the rest. The world
would practically run itself.
Instead, we now know that digital
technology can be used to undermine
democracy; that it raises more questions
than it answers; and that a world that runs
itself seems more like an Orwellian
nightmare scenario than a noble goal. But
while technology isn't the solution, it isn't
really the problem either; our singleminded
focus on it is.
Consider the experience of the media
industry, where the digital revolution has
wreaked havoc on prevailing business
models over the past decade. Publishers
and editors responded by putting all their
faith in technology: tracking all manner of
metrics, embracing data journalism,
hiring video teams, and opening podcast
studios.
More recently, media organizations
have shifted their attention toward
artificial-intelligence solutions that track
audience preferences, automatically
produce desired content and translations,
alert journalists to breaking news, and
much more. In the Reuters Institute for
the Study of Journalism's latest annual
report on media trends, 78% of
There are two key points to make here. First, we need to
pursue, discuss and think about these killers the same way
we do their violent Islamist counterparts, who they resemble
so closely. After 9/11, we instantly understood every Islamist
attack as part of a global terrorist problem; we did not probe
too deeply into the psychology of each killer, wondering
when exactly they went off the rails.
ALexAnDRA BORchARDT
respondents in a non-representative
survey of international media leaders said
they planned to invest more in AI this
year. But the final frontier in the quest to
save journalism, many believe, is the
blockchain - the distributed ledger
technology that underpins
cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. That
remains to be seen: The first attempt to
leverage the blockchain to free journalists
from ad-driven business models, by Civil
Media Company, had a bumpy start.
There is nothing wrong with using
technology to solve problems, including
those created by technology, or to give a
company a competitive edge. That is what
The Washington Post, for example, has
been doing in the six years since Amazon
chief executive Jeff Bezos purchased it (at
a time when it was hemorrhaging money
and shedding jobs). But not even the most
advanced tech will save the media
industry, or anybody else, if there is no
regard for the people using it. And that
does not mean just audiences. After years
of chasing the latest tech trends, the media
industry is increasingly confronting
burnout among existing management
and staff, and a shrinking pool of new
talent. According to the Reuters Institute
report, some 60% of media leaders are
concerned about burnout on their teams,
and 75% now worry about retaining and
attracting staff. Another report, Lucy
Kueng's Going Digital. A Roadmap for
Organizational Transformation, shows
that middle managers, in particular, have
been exiting the industry. This should not
be surprising. Journalists have always
faced pressure in managing the churn of
time-sensitive, demanding, and
constantly changing news situations. But
in the past, they could at least count on the
news organizations that employed them
problem; we did not probe too deeply
into the psychology of each killer,
wondering when exactly they went off
the rails. We weren't, frankly, that
interested in the state of their mental
health. We understood them as part of a
global phenomenon that had to be
fought hard - with both strength and
ingenuity. Now we must do the same
with this murderous form of white
supremacism, which has brought pain
and bloodshed to every corner of the
world.
We should emulate a second
understanding derived from the struggle
against violent [holy war]. Most,
including those on the political right,
were quick to accept that not all those
implicated in that movement were
themselves involved in violence. The
guilt of some - we called them hate
preachers - arose from their
advancement and legitimation of
extremist ideas, radicalising young men
(almost always men) who then took up
arms.
If that logic applies to Islamist violence,
it should also certainly apply to the threat
from far-right, white supremacist
terrorism. And who exactly are the hate
preachers this time? There are
loudmouth pundits and rabble-rousers
one could name, but more important are
those right-wing populist politicians who
are advancing across the democratic
world - many of them aiming to make
great gains in May's elections to the
European parliament.
Source : Guardian
Journalism’s risky tech attraction
According to the Reuters Institute report, some 60%
of media leaders are concerned about burnout on their
teams, and 75% now worry about retaining and
attracting staff. Another report, Lucy Kueng's Going
Digital. A Roadmap for Organizational
Transformation, shows that middle managers, in
particular, have been exiting the industry.
to offer stability and consistency. Now,
they must also navigate relentless, techdriven
organizational change - often
poorly explained and hastily introduced.
The level of uncertainty can drive away
even the most loyal staff.
To be sure, change is unavoidable; the
digital age demands constant adaptation.
But making needed adjustments without
destroying morale requires implementing
a people-oriented approach. This is not a
straightforward process. For tech
solutions, managers can attend shiny
digital conferences, take some sales team's
advice, sign a contract, and dump the new
tools on their newsrooms. With people,
they have to listen carefully, acquire an indepth
understanding of the problem, and
then devise their own strategy.
A good place to start is leadership. In any
industry, the key responsibilities of an
organization's leaders include making
their employees feel secure and
appreciated. That means paying attention
to employees' needs and fostering an
organizational culture that provides them
with a sense of belonging and purpose.
A similar approach must be applied to
audiences. Not even the most accurate
metrics can provide the needed guidance,
if nobody understands what they actually
mean, why they were chosen, or what
their psychological impact would be (on
audiences or staff).
Source : Asia Timnes